


Branded

by CaptainLeBubbles



Series: The Way It Changes [7]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 19:13:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3580758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLeBubbles/pseuds/CaptainLeBubbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doc gets Maine, in ways the others simply can't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Branded

**Author's Note:**

> Rewatching the BGC and realized that if anyone would get Maine, it's Doc.

o/o

*

Maine has a special bond with Doc. Doc understands him in ways that none of the others are able to, not even Wash, not even Carolina.

Wash is a little surprised, at first. He'd expected Doc to be afraid of Maine, or at least wary. After the abuse Doc had taken at the Meta's hands, Wash wouldn't have blamed him.

Doc shakes his head, when Wash points this out. “But he wasn't the same person when he did those things,” he says. “He was the Meta. Not Maine.”

“Right. But that's not always easy to understand.” Wash pulls one knee up and rests his head against the wall of the base. “His AI took over his mind and made him watch helplessly as his body was used to hurt the people he cared for the most. I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like for him.”

“Lucky you,” Doc says quietly, and hugs his knees to his chest.

He doesn't sound bitter. He should, and he has every right to. Wash looks away guiltily. He should have remembered, because he can't imagine but Doc doesn't have to. “I'm sorry.”

*

Maine is learning sign language. He'd learned a few, immediately necessary signs after the incident, but he'd been given Sigma so soon that he'd never bothered to learn more.

(It's getting easier, thinking of Sigma. The fire doesn't spread through his mind the way it used to.)

Now that he's back in his own head, he thinks he ought to find some better way to communicate. Wash is able to understand the words he can't say, but the others aren't; to them, his speech is just garbled rumbles. He has a file downloaded to his helmet that he studies from. It's a slow process, but he's learning. The others are learning too- Wash's orders, because what's the point of Maine learning to sign if the rest of them still can't understand him?

Doc is the only one who seems to be bothering, though. They sit together while Wash trains the other Blues, file playing in both of their helmets as they practice on each other.

It's nice.

*

Doc knows what it is to be branded by an AI.

Maine has the Meta's symbol tattooed on the back of his head. Sigma had designed it. Maine wasn't given a say.

Doc has the letter Omega burned into the front of one shoulder, done by laser. He tells Maine that Omega had let him feel it, when he put it there with Doc's own hands. Had enjoyed the sound of Doc screaming from the pain and then, when he'd gotten tired of that, had taken away even Doc's ability to scream. Left him inside his own head to burn.

*

Maine doesn't want to leave Doc at Valhalla when the others decide to head to Blood Gulch, but Doc has made his home there. Maine can't blame him. Blood Gulch has more bad memories for Doc than the others. The others might have had each other for everything they went through, but Doc had been abandoned even before Omega took over his mind. He doesn't hold a grudge- Maine doesn't think he knows how- but he is taking steps to take care of himself. Maine can respect that.

He just wishes it were different.

When the transport stops to drop Doc and Donut off at Valhalla, Maine stands at the edge of the ramp and pulls Doc into a bone crushing hug. Doc's toes dangle a foot off the ground and he's wheezing a little when Maine finally puts him down. He laughs; Maine pats his head fondly.

“I'll miss you too, big guy.”

Maine chuffs, and pulls Doc into another hug, less painful this time, and doesn't let him go again until the pilot impatiently informs them that it's time to go.

o/o


End file.
